Health Open Data

[Gerry Tychon]

A quick pre-Xmas post.

Previously, when I reviewed the BC open data site I noticed that
Health had, by far, the most datasets posted. I was curious as to what
they were like and took a look earlier this week. There is a lot of
information here (mostly summarized) and much of it is available in
spreadsheet format but using spreadsheets as “documents”. That is, the
capabilities of spreadsheets for data handling and calculations are
not being used but rather it is a convenient way to format a table-
like document. I have asked people why they used a spreadsheet instead
of a regular word processor and they have replied “it is easier” or
“that is what PeopleSoft produces”.

In any case, the distribution of data is an evolutionary process and I
am hopeful that Ministries such as Health will adopt modeling and data
distribution processes that reduce the “transaction costs” of making
use of their data. I see this as being of great benefit internally as
well as to the outside community.

I further wanted to put together a simple example using the “Exhibit”
widget and, as such, used a few sample datasets from Health that
contained information on Local Health Authorities, population, and
births and deaths (for 2010).

This example using faceted filters can found at:

http://datatogo.xspatial.com/example/bc_demo_01/bc_bd_facts01.htm

There is nothing really revealing in this example but I would be
curious to know if people had other ideas for data that could be
adapted for display using this approach.

Best to everyone … gerry tychon

[James McKinney]

You should speak to Nik Garkusha (cc) of Open Halton who has been doing exactly this sort of thing with Exhibit and other tools.